Margot Berlin

MESA POET Margot Berlin finds poetry in the ephemeral. “I tend toward portraits of moments. Flickers of love. Times the heart turns on a dime. The meat of seconds. Experiences that are elemental to who we are and the snippets of everyday life that define and bind us. The interaction that is nothing to one, but is for another, the smile from a stranger that saves them.”

After over twenty “soggy” years in Portland, Oregon, Margot moved to Arizona in 2019. She now considers herself a “thriving desert flower.” She immediately connected with the local poetry community and hosts the long-running poetry open mic at Jarrod’s Coffee, Tea and Gallery in Mesa. This event is held on the first and third Sundays of each month. “Jarrod’s is an incredible community partner and a place of kindness, compassion and respect. Over time it has become both a jumping-off point and a refuge for many a wordsmith. It’s been my honor and joy to see so many poets who have shared and featured at my open mic make their way onto stages across Arizona and the nation.”

Margot takes pride in helping to mentor new poets at the open mic. “The most important thing I can do for my community is provide a safe place for people to be who they are. A place for their truth to be heard. A place to be at last understood. A warm welcome into the world of words that has salvaged and liberated me and so many others.” Beside enjoying hosting these events, Margot finds that participating allows her appreciation of poetry to grow. “I am constantly inspired by the work of other poets. The poetical environment here is lush and intoxicating. My understanding of poetry, spoken word and slam poetry is constantly evolving.”

Margot writes both fiction and poetry, sometimes within the same project. “For me it’s about using the right tool for the job. In the novel I’m currently writing some chapters are poems, because poetry is the best way to express that moment or sentiment. Some of those poems are haiku because it is the most efficient way to describe a scene or character.”

Thematically she focuses often on love, loss and pain. “I use death as an instrument to carry those themes home. Death as an allegory. The death of love, self, faith, grief, innocence. But hope also features, foiling the darkness.”

Her style has evolved over the years. “I’ve become more comfortable with the truth, and therefore braver in my work. I no longer fear the past and stumble over it less. My style has grown sharp and spare, surgically precise. Maximum emotion, minimal word count.” Lately the way a poem physically looks has become more important to her. “I am currently fascinated with how a poem lies on the page, and have been experimenting with unconventional layouts.”

“I began writing poetry in the second grade. My father came into my class and taught us how to write a haiku, a form I delight in still. He loved what I’d written, and it made a writer of me.”

The haiku in question:
The rabbit runs fast
his ears flying behind him
his speed shames the wind

The poems here are from Margot’s latest chapbook, The Tree Remembers What the Axe Forgets, recently published by PopTab Press. The book focuses on the loss of love and the process of healing. “The creation of this poetry collection was a ritual act. A purging of bad love. A way to tend and harvest my grief. An inventory of what has changed forever and what cannot be destroyed. A tally of mistakes I will never make again. A book to close the book on bygone loves. My offering to the past. The coin of the future.” She enjoyed putting the collection together. “The order of the poems honors the pilgrimage of heartbreak. The brambled mountain path from rage to release. The promise of sacred ground. The broken light of hope through the trees.”

For Margot poetry is a compelling tool that helps people define their lives and express their identities. She shares these lines from one of her poems on the power of poetry: It gives shape to the ache / lets me hold you / lets me fall in love / with a stranger / raise walls and wreck them / summon grief and light. She adds, “Poetry is a life raft. A way to be truly seen and heard, understood and loved.”

Contact Margot at berlinmargot@gmail.com.

Mourn

Revelation fades to reminiscence
but I can’t feel the difference
between wake and want
hunger of the belly
hunger of the mind
scraps of love
at closing time
don’t spare the horses
the sorrow falls upon me
like a beast

November Fifteenth

Having known the torment of love
maybe I am the poison
the wind that pushes the fire
they’ve come for us
the shadows that shift and
right themselves against the light
so there’s no need for lying
I wonder what
blessings await
in this merciless
afterlife of love
what starlight
what green
what’s left over
when the hurting stops
piece by gentle piece

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